~ Lens-Artists Challenge #303: Connections ~

Posted on June 14, 2024 by Lindy Le Coq

Donna leads us this week to explore images portraying connections. We all are part of and connected to the Earth, so my photos will explore the links between living organisms with their environment. I’ll start with an example of a symbiotic relationship; a bee sipping nectar at the same time it pollinates a raspberry blossom which will become a delicious fruit for me to eat!

Late spring to early summer, Caspian Terns gather in colonies along the stretch of Long Beach (WA) where I walk. Often congregating with various gulls, Caspian Terns dive-fish for food. These three are mature adults ready to find mates.

Recently I heard a news story about the last truly wild horse species, Przewalski’s horses (aka takhi or Mongolian wild horses) being reintroduced to their native steppes in Kazakstan, where they had been extinct for at least 200 years. Archaeologist believe humans first domesticated horses in central Asia roughly 4,200 years ago. Humans and horses often develop strong bonds. https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/przewalskis-horse

Spring Azure butterflies have an adult lifespan of only a few days. Here two sip nectar from wild carrot blossoms. I have scoured my resource book and on-line to see if I could identify this plant. It is in a swampy creek-side habitat where one might find Water Hemlock, though it doesn’t have the same kind of blossom shape.

I’ll conclude this post with a photo representing one of my favorite ways to be connected to Earth; walking in the sand at low tide with the roar of our Pacific Ocean in my ears and my sweet Beagles Max (on the left) and Daisy, straining to catch those waves!

I’m looking forward to being together next week with my younger sister Lori, her daughter Molly, and grandson Micah. Family connections are most precious, and if I manage to get some photos, they may be featured in a future post!

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

Thanks to Donna for this wide-open challenge! It’s always a pleasure to find photos that fit the theme.

Lens-Artists Challenge #303 – Connections
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~ Wordless Wednesday + Cee’s FOTD ~

Posted on June 12, 2024 by Lindy Le Coq

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

Posted in bugs & critters, Cee's Flower Of The Day, Flower Of The Day, nature, nature photography, outdoors, pacific northwest, pacific ocean, photography, Wordless Wednesday | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

~ Lens-Artists Challenge #302: Artificial Intelligence and Photography ~

Posted on June 7, 2024 by Lindy Le Coq

John of Journeys with Johnbo (brave soul!) put this challenge out for us this week. I hope he has received kudos for asking us to stretch beyond our comfort zones. The photo below is the one I selected to see if I could add something to the foreground using AI. This is as far as I got, because my operating system is too old to add photoshop, and I am not going to jump into upgrading everything in one week – so I admit I’m taking a pirouette on this one!

Below is a scene that occurs often in spring when blackbirds pair-up and claim a territory, then other birds, like this crow, flap right down in the middle of it!

This Salmonberry blossom (Rubus spectabilis) is a dainty delight in the damp woodland forest. Its berries are edible and look very much like salmon eggs in color and texture.

Goldfinch are bright and beautiful set against a dazzling blue sky. If you have an open area in your yard, where you can put up a cylinder seed-feeder filled with sunflower chips, American and Lesser Goldfinch will find you!

Sunsets are different every time – even when snapped from the same vantage point. This one is from a month ago, when the clouds and rainstorms were frequently upon us.

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

Thanks to John for an excuse to open Pandora’s box this week. I truly hope you were not mistreated John, as this was a totally legitimate challenge. Maybe next time I’ll be equipped to participate fully!

Lens-Artists Challenge #302 – Artificial Intelligence and Photography
Posted in Birding, birds, flowers, Lens-Artists, Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, nature, nature photography, pacific northwest, pacific ocean, photography | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

~ Wordless Wednesday ~ Cedar Waxwings! ~

Posted on May 29, 2024 by Lindy Le Coq
Juvenile Bombycilla cedrorum
Juvenile
Adult Bombycilla cedrorum

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

Posted in Birding, birds, landscape gardening, nature, nature photography, ornithology, outdoors, pacific northwest, photography, Wordless Wednesday | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

~ Lens-Artists Challenge #301: Floral ~

Posted on May 28, 2024 by Lindy Le Coq

Sophie asks us “to think of how we either capture them [flowers] or how we process the image afterwards.” One of the goals for my gardens has been to plant perennials that provide color and beauty throughout the seasons. Spring brings a riot of color and fragrance every week, so I’m excited to join Sophie’s challenge to showcase what’s in bloom today.

With this close-up of one bloom in the cluster that is a Rhododendron blossom, I wanted to draw the eye into the center and focus on its rich colors and soft lacy texture. Rhododendron, the state flower of Washington, is an evergreen shrub that blooms for a short while, and provides glossy leaves year-round.

Another goal for my gardens is to have plants that attract and nourish birds, bees and butterflies. On Memorial Day in Vancouver USA, as the sun shone through a partly cloudy sky, bees were very busy! Golden Mockorange brightens dark spots in the landscape with its feathery chartreuse foliage, and produces clusters of fragrant, small, creamy-white flowers. I cropped and enhanced this shot to provide a perspective on the size of the blossoms relative to the bee.

Though this large climbing vine is vibrant, I preferred this close-up of one Clematis Nelly Moser blossom. I cropped it to bring focus to the center and radiating petals. Nelly has graced the railing of our entry-way for years. She is a vital climber that enjoys sun in her face, and shade at her feet.

Cistus Mickie on the left and Chardonnay Pearls on the right are both lower to the ground shrubs that have attractive foliage as well as interesting spring blossoms. With both of these photos, I cropped and enhanced the images to bring out the gentle beauty of their white blossoms

Native to the USA and non-invasive, Honeysuckle Major Wheeler puts on a show of coral/red trumpet blossoms all summer. A favorite of hummingbirds, it also attracts bees and butterflies. The close-up photo didn’t need cropping, though I did boost the light to show-off its razzle-dazzle splendor!

I could go on and on, however since I often feature photos of flowers from my gardens in my blog, I’ll end right here with a big thank you to Sophie for this challenge!

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

/https://photographias.wordpress.com/2024/05/25/lens-artists-challenge-301-floral/

Posted in bugs & critters, flowers, landscape gardening, Lens-Artists, Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, nature, nature photography, outdoors, pacific northwest, photography, plants | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

~ Lens-Artists Challenge#300: Delicate ~

Posted on May 24, 2024 by Lindy Le Coq

This week Anne-Christine invites us to portray delicacy in our photographs. She has some wonderful examples from a recent visit to Japan, so be sure to check out her post. Our earth is a delicate organism with an abundance of life-forms, all equally sensitive.

A jellyfish on the shore in a wash of sea-foam bubbles. Jellies are not fish, as they have no backbone. They are simple animals, composed of 95% water, that float in the oceans.

This fragile fungus was maybe 1″ (2.54 cm) across and 1.5″ (3.81 cm) tall. It’s lacy ruffled edge and parasol form exude elegance. I haven’t been able to find what it is named. If you recognize it, please tell me by commenting with the answer!

Fresh ripe raspberries hang ready to be picked before they slip off their receptacle, the white central core that stays on the plant when the fruit drops. My garden has a nice set coming on for this season. They are so tender and delicious, I can hardly wait!

What is more elegant, graceful and exquisite than a butterfly on a blossom? Nothing in my archives, though I’m sure there are other equally lovely combinations in the many examples LAPC contributors will post to this challenge.

Ice crystals coat the berries and leaves of this kinnikinnick (aka bearberry) plant, creating an ethereal impression of a humble ground cover. Kinnikinnick means “smoking mixture” in the Unami (Algonquian) language. Wikipedia

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

Thanks for Leya/Anne Christine for this wonderful challenge. Also, congratulations to the entire LAPC team for this milestone post #300 – Five years and 7 months! I am so grateful to all of you for the thought, hours and energy you put into these posts.

Lens-Artists Challenge #300- Delicate
Posted in Lens-Artists, Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, mycology/mushrooms/fungi, nature, nature photography, outdoors, pacific northwest, photography, weekly photo challenge | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

~ Lens-Artists Challenge #299: Hopeful ~

Posted on May 17, 2024 by Lindy Le Coq

This week, Patti asks us to consider what keeps us hopeful. Being an optimist has helped me weather the ups and downs of my 75 years of life. To me, hope is the child of optimism; a sincere positive response when dealing with uncertainty and doubts. Hope comes in Little Pockets of Joy. Moments that happen spontaneously and bring a sense of grace and peace to my being in the moment and as I reflect upon them.

Although I didn’t see them, all along the Martha Jordan Birding Trail at Leadbetter State Park on the Long Beach Peninsula, I heard the calls and responses of Red-winged Blackbirds. Just walking under this lovely grove of cottonwood trees and hearing the birds was enough to strengthen my hope.

Seeing one Red-necked Phalarope gliding over the surface of a marsh pond today kindled the hope that there will be more to come.

While Daisy barks at the waves and splashes along the surging surf, Max supplements his diet with Dungeness Crab crunchies. Being out in nature with these two energetic spirits provides many little pockets of joy which spill into my basket of hope.

Inhaling the fragrance of a lilac as I pass by on my walk, especially on a blue sky morning, fills my senses with joy in the moment and anticipation for the day.

Sipping a glass of crisp white wine (or a dry Rose, or mellow red…) with friends, as we watch another glorious sunset, brings to me a wellspring of faith, belief and hope.

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

So let’s raise a glass to toast Patti for helping all of us remember reason to be hopeful. Finding “little pockets of joy” is a daily delight!

Lens-Artists Challenge #299- Hopeful

Posted in Beagles, Birding, flowers, Lens-Artists, Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, nature, nature photography, outdoors, pacific northwest, pacific ocean, photography, travel, weekly photo challenge | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

~ Wordless Wednesday ~ Night and Day in May ~

Posted on May 15, 2024 by Lindy Le Coq

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

Posted in nature, nature photography, outdoors, pacific northwest, pacific ocean, photography, travel, Wordless Wednesday | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

~ Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #298: To Be Young Again ~

Posted on May 9, 2024 by Lindy Le Coq

Oh, dear. My archives contain very few people photos, and therefore even fewer of children. To fulfill the challenge that Tina poses this week, I’ve selected some favorite baby bird shots. Maybe this will prompt me to go places where people gather and to take more photos of humans interacting!

Anas platyrhynchos

Ducks, geese, and chickens are examples of precocial birds; capable of movement and self-sufficiency soon after hatching. Above, a hen Mallard with her brood of five ducklings are on their way to feed in a marsh pond.

Dryobates pubescens

The majority of birds that frequent my feeders are atricial; immature and helpless when they hatch, and require care and feeding for some time afterward. Parents often appear smaller than their emerging fledglings. Above a Downy woodpecker stuffs suet into the chick’s mouth, and below a Northern (Red-shafted) Flicker does the same. Over time the chicks learn to cling to the feeder and get suet on their own.

Colaptes auratus

Below, a fledgling Killdeer is almost invisible in the grass and dried foam of the receding marsh. Ground-nesters, adult Killdeer have elaborate broken wing displays to distract predators from their nests as the atricial babies grow.

Charadrius vociferus
Pelecanus occidentalis

Above, a young Brown Pelican rests on the shoreline at Long Beach, WA. West coast pelicans breed on dry, rocky offshore islands, between southern California and southern Ecuador. “Pelicans incubate their eggs with the skin of their feet, essentially standing on the eggs to keep them warm.” (Cornell Lab – All About Birds)

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

Thank you Tina, for giving folks like me another avenue to share in this week’s challenge!

Lens-Artists Challenge #298 – To Be Young Again
Posted in Birding, birds, Lens-Artists, Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, nature, nature photography, ornithology, outdoors, pacific northwest, pacific ocean, photography, wildlife | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

~ Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #297: Music to My Eyes ~

Posted on May 2, 2024 by Lindy Le Coq

Egídio asks us to pair music and photography this week in a unique and exciting challenge. At one time in my life I was the singer in a Jazz Trio, so as I contemplated this post, jazz standards and Bossa Nova tunes started swimming in my brain. Since I grew up in the 60’s-70’s, a lot of music of the times mingled into the mix, and because my family loved to sing around the campfire, those early influences emerged as well. I’m starting with a little known song most often heard as an instrumental, “Softly As in a Morning Sunrise”, from a 1928 operetta The New Moon, music composed by Sigmund Romberg with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.

“Softly, as in a morning sunrise the light of love comes stealing into a new born day….” Bobby Darin and Dianne Reeves have nice interpretations of the song, however it’s this one line that always comes into my head when I’m out and about when the sun comes up.

As the day progresses, especially on a lazy day with nice weather, a tune by The Lovin’ Spoonfull takes over.

“What a day for a daydream, custom-made for a daydreaming boy, and I’m lost in a daydream, dreamin’ ’bout my bundle of joy… and even if time ain’t really on my side, it’s one of those days for taking a walk outside….” Ah, yes!

Even when it’s raining, I still enjoy my walks outside. Here’s a favorite that I sing to myself on these outings; “Isn’t This A Lovely Day”, Lyrics by Irving Berlin for Top Hat 1935, sung by Fred Astaire.

“Isn’t this a lovely day to be caught in the rain? …Let the rain pitter patter but it really doesn’t matter if the skies are gray, long as I can be with you it’s a lovely day.”

Songs of the Sons of the Pioneers were among my family’s favorites, and the tunes and lyrics linger in me all these decades later. “I Follow the Stream”, Written by Bob Nolan and recorded with The Sons of the Pioneers (1935), is one of those.

“Wandering down thru the years like a brook winding on in a dream, somehow it leads me home if I’ll just follow the stream.
” It’s comforting to know, if you are lost in the mountains, stay near a stream and eventually you will find your way.

Another song that weaves into my life when I’m out in the wilderness was written by Tim Spencer, the founder of the Sons of the Pioneers, “The Timber Trail”.

“Tall timber’s callin’, and the echoes ring, all nature sings a song along the timber trail… High in the sky above, the love song of the trees, will blend and wend its way out on the breeze.”

Thank you Egídio for this opportunity to reminisce with photos of places I love to be, and songs that have nurtured me throughout my life! https://www.tumbleweedtrail.net/

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

https://egidio.photography/lens-artists-challenge-297-music-to-my-eyes
Posted in Lens-Artists, Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, music, nature, nature photography, outdoors, pacific northwest, photography, travel, trees, weekly photo challenge | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments